


Family and Friends

by glymr



Series: Sawdust and Spangles [8]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Robin (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Collaboration, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-24
Updated: 2010-03-24
Packaged: 2018-03-08 21:33:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3224195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glymr/pseuds/glymr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Jason and Cassandra," said Bruce, his voice both fond and slightly chiding, "Meet Dick and Tom Grayson." He turned to his guests. "These are my wards," he said.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family and Friends

Dick fidgeted on the leather chair and looked around the enormous study. Probably everything in here was an antique. The huge wooden desk, dark and polished to a high shine. The Oriental rug beneath their feet.

He could tell Tom was uncomfortable as well - not that Tom ever fidgeted, but Dick knew his brother, and he could feel the tension singing in Tom's muscles as the young man sat stiffly beside him and explained what had happened. Neither of them had ever expected to come back here, let alone under such circumstances.

"...so you see, sir, the owner's gambling addiction has left us in a rather precarious position. Since he took out legal loans to pay off his gambling debts, well. If the circus isn't purchased by someone by the end of the week, all of the equipment will be sold to pay the loans." His hands tightened in his lap. "*We'll* be fine...we've had plenty of offers, both in Europe and stateside. But the _circus_ , and all the people that depend on her for their livelihood...it will be one more circus to die. There aren't many left these days, you know."

Mr. Wayne...Bruce...folded his hands together and looked at them. "What did you want me to do?" he asked simply.

Tom took a breath. "Wayne Enterprises has so many interests. We thought that, perhaps, you might want to invest in a circus. You wouldn't get immediate return, but I can assure you, it would be a very good long-term investment."

Bruce nodded thoughtfully. "That's one option," he said. "There is...at least one other."

Looking puzzled, Tom said, "Another option?"

The door swung open, diverting everyone's attention. A dark-haired young man pushed into the room, his arm slung around the shoulders of a petite Asian girl. "Bossman, me and Cass are gonna meet Steph for a mov-" He stopped. "Oh, sorry," he said with an apologetic grin at Dick and Tom. "Didn't know you had company."

"Jason and Cassandra," said Bruce, his voice both fond and slightly chiding, "Meet Dick and Tom Grayson." He turned to his guests. "These are my wards," he said.

"Graysons? Like the Flying Graysons?" The two young men stood up as Jason came forward to shake their hands and Cassandra silently followed his lead. "Man, you guys are great! I never miss a show when you're in town."

Dick beamed. "We'll send you some Annie Oakleys next time we're in Gotham." Seeing Jason's confused look, he laughed and said, "Sorry, circus slang. We'll send you a couple of free passes. Right Tom?"

Tom was smiling, but his brows were drawn together slightly in a puzzled frown. "Sure," he said. "We'll give you the backstage tour."

Jason smirked and said, "As long you don't expect me to get up on one of those trape-whatsits."

It was only for a split second, but Dick noticed it just the same when Tom went _rigid_ beside him. "Nah," said Dick easily, "We save that treatment for the critics. Fortunately we haven't gotten a bad review in awhile." He turned to look at Tom. Tom was staring from Jason to Cassandra, his eyes wide and his lips slightly parted. He was blinking slightly more rapidly than normally, which was a sure sign that something was going on in his head.

"Tom?" said Dick, and Tom squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head for a moment before opening them. "Sorry, I was just...thinking."

"Hope you don't zone out like that while you're doing your act," said Jason dryly. The girl tugged urgently on his arm. "Whoa, I'm coming, Cass. We've still got plenty of time to meet up with Steph." She pulled hard, almost yanking him off balance. "I'm coming, I'm coming! See you guys around," he tossed over his shoulder as the girl all but dragged him out of the room. "Fuck, Cass what the hell are you do-" his words were cut off as the heavy door swung shut behind him.

"I apologize for my wards," said Bruce, sounding mildly embarrassed. "They tend to get a bit...exuberant."

"Oh, *we* don't mind," said Dick. "You should have seen me when I was his age, I could never sit still for more then a few seconds at a time!"

"You still can't," said Tom sardonically.

"True enough," said Dick. He casually flipped into a handstand and said, "So, where were we?"

Tom huffed out a laugh and sat back down. "Mr. Wayne was telling us about an alternative option." Dick somersaulted back onto his feet and sat down next to him.

* * *

Bruce looked at the two young men sitting across from him, Tom tightly composed, Dick shifting and almost seeming to vibrate in the chair, his eyes continually turning in Tom's direction.

"I once knew a man named Jack Drake," said Bruce slowly, watching the effect of the name on the boys. Tom paled, while Dick put a comforting hand on the younger boy's arm. "He was married to a woman named Janet, and the two of them had a young son, Timothy."

Tom swallowed and looked away for a moment before meeting his eyes again.

"One day, not long after his sixth birthday, Tim disappeared. His parents, after they returned from the trip they'd been on, spared no expense to find him. The best detectives in Gotham worked on the case, but to no avail. There was no ransom note and no sign of the boy. It was as though he'd simply walked out of his house one day and...vanished into thin air."

Dick shot a look of admiration at his brother, but Tom didn't see it. He was too focused on Bruce, his hands clenched tightly together in his lap.

"Jack and his wife were themselves the victims of a kidnapping years later," he went on. "Janet...didn't make it," Tom's face twitched slightly, almost imperceptibly. "Jack was in a coma for a long time. Last year, he passed away too."

He remembered the last conversation he had with the man.

"Perhaps Tim simply ran away, Jack. Perhaps he's alive and well and happy somewhere."

Jack shook his head. "I wish I could believe that, Bruce. You don't know how much I wish I could believe that."

"If you did find him somewhere, living with some other family, what would you do?" asked Bruce curiously.

"Do?" Jack looked at him blankly.

"Would you leave him with the other family, or would you bring him home?"

"I would bring him home, of course," said Jack. "He's _my son_."

Tom cleared his throat, interrupting his reverie. "What does this have to do with us?" he asked hoarsely.

Bruce frowned down at the papers in his hand. "Jack left a considerable sum of money behind. The only Will they could find named Janet as the beneficiary, or his son, Tim, if Janet predeceased him. There was a clause added later, stating that if both parties were deceased, his fortune should go to charity. It just so happens that the charity he named was the Martha Wayne Memorial Children's Charity, which provides shelter and help for runaways."

Tom was frowning, but some color was coming back into his face, at least. He nodded at Bruce to go on.

"Tim had been missing a long time, and was legally declared dead, so the charity inherited everything. The money was put into a trust fund, and I have long been considering the best way to invest it. It seems to me that your circus, though a rather _unorthodox_ investment, would be a sound one. On one condition."

Tom didn't say anything, so Dick spoke up. "What condition?" he said warily.

"I want you two to be co-managers."

Both boys blinked, then they looked at each other for a long moment, communicating without words. Then, as one, they looked at Bruce again, and a small smile lit on Tom's lips for the first time since Bruce had mentioned Jack Drake. "Agreed," he said.

"Excellent," said Bruce. "I will draw up the paperwork. But first, how about some refreshment?" He rang for Alfred, silencing their polite refusals with a wave of his hand. "Please," he said. "I insist."  
  
~~~


End file.
